Curse of the thousand clichés.

Rating: 2/10 (13 August 2013)

Big spectacular looking robots? Check. Even bigger generically designed alien Godzilla-lookalikes? Check. Fantastic special effects? Check. Predictable romance? Check. Traumatized hero sent into self-imposed exile? Check. Glorification of American global power? Check. Militarism again being the answer to a world crisis? Check. Cringe-worthy dialogue? Check. This list could go on and on and reflect my slight disappointment with this movie. Despite being disappointed i must say I did enjoy the designs of the robots and the sense of their gigantic scale. Especially in the beginning of the movie, when their appearance still feels fresh. The fighting between the robots and aliens is also well done. It's a sight to behold to see how well the animators succeeded in making the fights between these giants seem realistic somehow.
The big problem with Pacific Rim to me is that the plot, character progression and dialogue are so dull and worn out by continuous use through decades of action-movies that they started to annoy me more and more as the movie progressed. I could follow other reviewers and celebrate Pacific Rim's 'campness' but to me this predictability seemed more like laziness and a sense of complacency by the director. Imagine him like this; sitting in his director chair, lurking on a cigar, watching the work of his special effects crew, thinking out loud: 'Damn these guys are doing great work! My movie is going to AMAZE people! I don't even have to make an effort to create an interesting storyline and dialogue! ALL HAIL TO CG!'
Don't get me wrong, i can enjoy a cheesy plot now and then but in here the unoriginality is so blatant it hurts. The consequence of this predictability is that it makes Pacific Rim 'lack a soul', as in a memorable humanity behind the awesome robot-designs. It would have helped if the acting wouldn't have been so wooden at times. The protagonist Raleigh is just a generic looking dude with no memorable traits at all. Even more stupid is that his rival looks quite a bit like him so that during one action scene I actually was CONFUSED which of the two guys was actually fighting. At least give one the guys a beard so that they differ from each other! It's sad that the role of the antagonist is dwarfed under the weight of the mankind/alien conflict because he has a distinctive strong appearance and could have spiced things up a bit. Another annoying highlight was the 'peeping hole-scene' and almost every other scene between the hero and his Japanese love interest, who, apart from admittingly looking beautiful, acts like a 10-year old girl experiencing her first lovecrush. And the hero? He stays cool offcourse, like a hero does, while the woman almost drips liquid from pure confused excitement. Oh please.
The lack of soul can also be found in the design and character of the aliens. Sure they are big and imposing but they reminded me a hell of lot of the monsters in recent videogames like Crysis and Resistance. What makes things worse is that despite having two brains they have the most predictable alien monster-mindset known to cinema-goers: INVADE. DESTROY. MOVE ON TO NEXT PLANET. There is no deeper psychological layer here. These beasts merely serve as apocalyptic canon fodder to mankind. I actually felt sorry for them when they got blown up at the end, just like I felt sorry for Godzilla in 1998 when he got killed. I wish directors would learn more from a movie like District 9 who shows that it can pay off if you try something new with the depiction of alien enemies.
Things i will remember from this movie in some years? Hongkong being destroyed by a badass he-robot and an evil beast! That was awesome. With the city as a crumbling backdrop the scale and power of the robots/monsters truly shines through. This is Godzilla on American steroids anno 2013, which is cool if you monster movies like me. When the memory of the action subsides the boring look of the militarybase where 80% of the movie happens might come back to my mind. Yellow. Brown... Boring dialogue. Oh yes..this movie was quite shitty! Now I remember...